Prove Your Worth
by girlthatwrites
Summary: "They won't need us around to die. They don't know the land like we do. They haven't spent the past century evolving." I looked at Lincoln, pointing at his notebook. "That girl...her pretty little face will be burned off..." (TV Show: The 100)
1. Chapter 1

Grounders.

Was that really how they referred to us? As "grounders"? How about "earth inhabitants"? Or "earth people"? Did they think they were entitled to referring to themselves as earthlings now? It was not as if they were like us, having lived so long in the stars. Where had they even come from? Why were they here? To take over our land? Did the stars make them so greedy as to want to steal all our vegetation, so savage as to want to kill all our people.

"It's ridiculous," I muttered as I angrily folded the thick furs from winter to stuff them in the chest against the wall. "Lincoln, you have to reali-"

"They aren't that different."

I looked up, eyes widening slowly as I took in the full sight of my half-brother. He was older than me by a few years, as our mother had been paired with my father after his father became sick and died without any other children aside from Lincoln. Now here he stood in my doorway, telling me about the "star people" that had landed in the woods not far from where my own home was. It was land we did not often venture to in the winter months, as it was too far away and darkness settled in much earlier during the colder times during the year. We had been planning to set up a post exactly where the people from the sky had crashed, but clearly that was not going to be happening until they were gone.

"They look like us," Lincoln began to explain, pulling his notebook from his pocket as he walked forward.

"Look like us?" I scoffed. "Physical similarity doesn't mean mental similarity. Honestly, Lincoln, you're a smart man, why would you-"

Yet again I was cut off as he thrust the notebook toward me to look at sketches he had made of one of the girl's in the camp. She was pretty, and young, around the same age if not a bit older than me. Her dark hair encased a youthful and free face. I snapped the notebook shut, throwing it back toward Lincoln as I turned to finish folding the rest of the winter furs. I was so accustomed to trusting my brother with everything, all my thoughts, and he often agreed. Yet, here he was, defending these people that had intruded on our planet, on our home.

"They'll die," I said with certainty as I slammed the chest shut.

"Not if we make peace with them. They aren't all bad."

"They won't need us around to die. They don't know the land like we do. They haven't spent the past century evolving." I looked at Lincoln, pointing at his notebook. "That girl...her pretty little face will be burned off when the Fog comes."

"If we make peace with them we can teach them how to survive."

I laughed dryly, shaking my head. "They can't survive. They're practically grown adults. Do any of them have scars on their skin? Have any of them ever been in a war? A fight even? They aren't tough enough to survive."

"They're the same as us, Kali!"

"No!" I slammed my hand down on the top of the chest. "Lincoln, listen to me! Those people are not worth protecting!"

"Yes, they are!" His voice echoed around the small room, hanging in the air long enough for each of us to take a breath.

"They haven't even been here half a fortnight," I reminded him. "You can't decide if they're worth our protection in that time."

"And you can't decide they're not."

I turned my eyes up to his for a moment before he spun on his heels and walked to the ladder, hoisting himself up and out of the room in a few easy motions. I turned to lean my forearms on the chest, taking deep breaths to steady myself. Lincoln and I had never argued that much, despite any differences we had. He could have been a great warrior, but instead he chose to shadow healers and learn their ways or draw pictures of flowers and leaves and people. I picked up my dagger made out of the sharpened rib bone of one of the first animals I ever killed and began to twirl it between my two hands as I paced the room.

Lincoln was going to try to find his way into the camp, I knew he was. The fallout was going to be awful, there were no other possibilities, but he was still going to follow through anyway. They could kill him if they really tried. They could kill all of us, if they had the technology with them that kept them alive and safe for all those years among the stars. Perhaps they were worth making peace with, but I was far harder to convince of that than Lincoln was. I needed proof before my eyes that these humans from the sky were worthy of living on earth. If their ancestors were worthy all those generations ago, perhaps the new arrivals were too. Only time would tell.


	2. Chapter 2

A loud thumping sound woke me suddenly, and for a moment I was drowning in complete darkness. The thumping continued above me as I fumbled around on the turned over crate next to my sleeping area, trying to find matches to light a candle. Thump. Thump. Thump. Fumble. Fumble. Fumble. I could hardly even see the outline of my hand as I latched onto the familiar square object. I sat up more, feeling the thin, light pieces of wood fall through my fingers until I latched onto one long enough to strike it and bring the flame to a candle.

Just as the wick lit up, the sound of the thumping above had ceased. I remained frozen where I was in a crouched over position, looking in the direction of the ladder that led up to the entrance to what I had called home for two years. It was a discreet entrance, closed off and well covered. Even many of the others did not know where I lived or could not travel their without directions from Lincoln or Anya or the Elder. Then again, the Elder knew every inch of the forest even better than some of our best trackers. He knew the location of everyone's abode, of everyone's favorite places. He could no longer travel outside of his wheeling chair and not far from his home, but he still knew just as much as he had when he could walk. He was the oldest man in the world; the last human from before the nuclear war. For as long as we could, we were keeping the news of the arrival of the people from the stars a secret from him. His health was week, and that could be enough to kill the man.

I looked up so quickly when I heard another thump that my neck bones cracked. This time it was not just random noises, but a steady pattern of beats that was Lincoln's code to ask to be let in. I rushed over to ascend the short rope ladder and unlock the hatch for him. In the darkness outside I could hardly see anything more than his outline again the stars, but even that was a welcome sight from the bitter and heated end to our last encounter. Perhaps now he was thinking more sensibly, and would not keep talking about our need to "make peace" with the people from the sky. I had spent much of the past few days hunting and tending to repairs in my home, and I had not seen any who knew about the latest news of these intruders.

I walked over to the wooden table near my store of berries and nuts and lit the three candles there to light up the room. When I turned, I finally saw what my brother looked like, wearing the clothes of the intruders and covered in blood and filth. Every maternal instinct I had screamed to help him in some way, but I remained resolute where I was. He was no child, and brother of mine or not, he was not meant to be coddled. Spoiling adults and fussing over them only turned them into tall infants with great demands.

"What did they do to you?" I asked through clenched teeth.

"Nothing."

"It looks that way. If you wish to take care of nothing, there are cloths next to that water basin." I pointed to the basin I had filled just before locking my hatch for the night. "Don't tell me you're still going to try to defend these people now."

Lincoln looked up at me with steel in his eyes, a look I had seen him use before when chastised by our mother for actions he saw no wrong in. "They do for each other what we do for each other here. They try to save each other. They look out for each other."

"They torture our people together," I cut in coldly.

"Kali, they're scared. They don't know what herbs to use or how to grow food or how to keep themselves safe."

"They could have kept themselves safe by staying up in the stars."

"I thought you of all people would agree with me. Four years ago you would have been overjoyed at the idea of new people on earth, people from a different life."

"And four years ago our mother and my father were not dead at the hands of another clan. Forgive me for being wary of new people on our land."

"Kali..."

I bit the inside of my cheek so hard I thought I might taste blood eventually. "Why did they do this?" I asked in a more reasonable tone. "Did they want information about us?"

"They wanted to know how to cure someone."

"And in return attempted to kill you."

"They hardly made a mark. But they..." I looked up at him when he hesitated, holding my breath until he spoke again. "They had something strange. Bluish white tiny fire. It came from strange ropes. They hit the ropes together and sparks came out, like off colliding rocks or metal. They poked me with the ropes and it hurt. Not like an arrow or a knife, but...different."

I furrowed my brow at his vague description, not able to create a clear mental image in my mind of what he was talking about. "Then they let you go?"

Yet again, a pause. "Their leaders didn't. It was Octavia."

"Octavia? Who is she?"

"The girl I've seen. The one I drew. I helped her when she was hurt and so she repaid me by freeing me when the leaders weren't there. Octavia is who set me free."

I watched his face as he spoke about her, the way his eyes softened and sparkled and the small smile he was fighting to hold back at her name. "Don't tell me you've fallen for her."

"I can't. I swore I would never lie to you."

I put my hand to my forehead and fell into the rickety chair next to the table with a groan. "Shit. They're going to come looking for you, for all of us."

"Which is why you need to stay underground, at least until we've figured out a way to create-"

"Peace? You know Anya won't want peace with these people. She trusts none of them."

"Have you spoken to her?"

"I know her well enough to know she doesn't trust them and never will. They're foreign and won't assimilate to our ways. It's not as though I take pleasure in the idea of killing a hundred people. I've tried to avoid battle for the past few years. But they're a threat."

"They aren't the threat. If you met them, if you just saw them, you'd realize fighting them is the wrong choice."

My hand fell from my forehead into my lap. "These people have tortured you and yet you defend them and are willing to help them still?"

He nodded silently.

I let out a quiet sigh, slouching a bit more in my chair. "I'll give them a chance. One chance. If they mess that up, I won't change my mind about them. If anyone is hurt, so much as a scratch, I won't take your side on this when you're declared a traitor."

"You've never been shy about being blunt, Kali."

"Coyness and pretty words give false hope, Lincoln. I won't raise your hopes when I know what the outcome will be."

"You just think you know what the outcome will be. There is a difference."

After that there was only silence between us as he used the rags and water to clean off his wounds. He was in no condition to travel on foot all the way to his own home, but he chose to anyway. Perhaps he was hoping the girl, Octavia, would be waiting there for him or would come to see him in the morning. She just might, but more of our people were on the lookout than ever, and she could easily make a wrong move. There was always a chance she was using him, but Lincoln was more often than not able to tell when people were lying to him or using him. Our mother had always stressed honesty as the most importantly quality in a person, and she taught us how to practically smell lies on other people. No, this girl could not have enough skill to trick my brother, which meant her feelings for him were just as real as his for her. That only made what was between them more dangerous.

I slept little that night, pacing around my room until I saw pieces of grayish light creep through some cracks in my hatch. Arming myself with a bow and arrow, I made my way out into the early morning to find game to feed myself for the next few days. Once word spread of Lincoln's capture and how he escaped, decisions would need to be made over how to react. Anya was a great leader of her own unit of people, but her wariness and mistrust of all foreigners, no matter how nonthreatening, had the potential to be dangerous. I fought as her second six years ago when a new clan attempted to invade, the two scars of my kills still very visible on my shoulder. Then, three years ago, I fought in the front lines of an attack on another invading clan, but that battle was far longer, far bloodier. I lost both my parents, my father a warrior and my mother a healer. Lincoln had fought bravely until our mother was killed, and then he immediately took over her duties without hesitation or ceremony. It frustrated many that Lincoln chose to follow in our mother's footsteps rather than his own father's and step-father's.

The most frustrating of all had been my decision to choose the life of a pseudo-hermit over another more desirable option. After the last battle, Anya had received word that the Commander's unit needed new warriors, and she along with four others, including myself, were given the chance to join him. Our people were too loyal to Anya and she to use for her to leave, but it was assumed the four of us that received the offer would take it. I was the only one who refused. I knew myself well enough to know that I could not go into battle, not so soon after watching my own parents die. My people were shocked, but in my paranoid and grieving state I had taken it as mistrust and disgust. I locked myself away in my underground home, only ever returning back to the main campsites to consult with Anya or leaving to visit Lincoln at his own home. He was solitary, but not as much as me. I preferred it this way. The fewer attachments I had to the outside world, the better.

* * *

**A/N: Please let me know what you think :)**


End file.
